Adjaye's interview in the DenverPost.com

...about the Denver Museum of contemporary art.

"...you've referred to yourself as Robin Hood, making things grittier for the rich and glossier for the poor..."

what a great way to think of things! =)

on affordable housing/community design

"Studies of the vernacular prove that architects, planners, and developers are not needed for people to live decently. Civilizations will survive without them. However, in today's world, we have allowed the system to sacrifice basic human needs for the sake of other agendas in the building of our communities.

Community organizations need architects, but they need them to take on the role of advocacy, rather than just design. Architects need to be part of the entire development process and must become a part of the community in order to be able to speak for that community. Ironically, the architect must work to restore the community so that they are not in need of his or her services any longer.

Perhaps then, the role of the architect should be amended to that of a facilitator whose responsibility it is to assure that the built form does not impede the flow of life that was meant to be. It is the architect's responsibility to know what techniques, materials, processes, and practices hinder a community's growth and what nurtures that growth. The architect is not on a different level than any other community member, but must recognize his or her role within that community.

The architect must all at once be a designer, a builder, a construction worker, a psychologist, a social worker, a minister, a parent, a sibling, a child, and most importantly, a friend. "

MJ Divino from, "The Paradox of Architecture: People know how to House themselves"

The Mad Housers

interesting org.

Architecture Radio

lovely concept...how many times have you wanted to check out a lecture but for whatever reasons couldn't get there...work, school, no BABYSITTER (!!!) well, here you go, you can listen to it anyway. i presume this will be better when its more developed and more widespread.

Article about Community Architexts

titled: "Public Art Gets Relevant" the quote reads: no longer plop art...that's exactly it, it somewhat annoys me that public art is often times not more integrated with the built environment. i did a short internship with them working on the early stages ofthe Family Voices Austin project listed and photographed here a few years ago. the final product seems well deserving of the award and accolades. its definitely a defining experience, organization and piece in thinking about this relationship between public art and architecture as well the integration of art and critical narrative in the streetscape. there was recently a similar call for entries for a signage project in the International District here...which i'm pretty sure passed but will be very interested to see what comes out of it....

one thing about these art and community projects with "underserved" communities, i notice and am more and more sensitive to the fact that its rarely representatives from those communities that lead the projects. i don't think that is an absolute neccessity by any means, but i just wonder how an art project with african-american (mostly teen) mothers on the west-side of chicago would be different if lead by an artist who was also a black mother from an underserved neighborhood in chicago. just curious. maybe it wouldn't be different. i dunno.

felt cafe

my lovely studiomate has started a felting business. the cuffs in particular are especially fly.

Archinect : School Blog Project

great project. funny i wonder why uw is not on the list....yeah, right.

MUSEUM OF CONTEMPORY AFRICAN ART

by meschac gaba beninese artist

Home Work

Home Work: Handbuilt Shelter is a photo book featuring green building and sustainable alternative architecture using natural building materials

artivism and PAR

long time no write to little bloggy you. upon return from chicago to participate in the moving celebration of my grandfather's transition from his 99 years with us on to his next exisitence...i attended the community design in the pacific rim conference at UW yesterday.

by far, for me, the highlights of the first day of the conference was the opening panel and the sesssion entitled artivism. the opening session addressed evaluation of community design, in which michael rios made a case for Participatory Action Research as a model and mark francis made a case for the case-study model. i was excited to see this. i adapted and used a participatory action research model created by the Ms. Foundation for women in evaluating my project, "in a girl's world: re-envisioining the city" this past year. Both people suggested that our field is more and more research oriented with most new hires having Ph.D.'s. they went on to say that community design is not the fringe work that it was in the 60's, it is now mainstream and begs for shared comparitive ways to document and evaluate the work.

the session entitled artivism featured three projects/organization. the pomegranate center which i had heard of was one of the orgs. however the most poignant paper/presentation to me was the one entitled : "identity politics and community artivism: a strategic arts project of cultural landscape conservation at Treasure Hill, Taipei"...in which Minjay Kang presented from the Organization of Urban Re's (REvolution, REconstruction etc. pick one ) and the Department of Cultural Affairs in Taipei which turned a squatter community in to an "artsville" as an act of resistance to eviction and the levelling of the community which the mayor had described as an urban tumor. (more here). they showed the work of one particular artist in residence marco casagrande who is also an architect.

i think this session was most interesting to me b/c it was both theoretical and practical. it was both art, activism and dealing with the built environment. it was both inspiring and controversial. it deals with the politics of preservation. it begs the question, does art really make a difference? in this case is it an impositon on the residents of the squatter or is it their saving grace? its absolutely meaningful but Kang asked a critical question. he presented at a conference on democratic design, is there anything democratic about this?